It took a week of Earth days before the Kalash-Quovo was ready to depart. It turned out that a couple of dozen fuakalas who had come aboard wanted to go back down to Ooafa rather than leave their native star system, even briefly. Meanwhile, there were nearly three hundred fuakalas aboard by that point. A lot of them were ordered to stay in the barracks unless escorted and to not touch any buttons, until such time as they had the basic safety lessons.

Nick and sixteen of the fuakalas were considered minimally competent in shiphandling, which was enough for the engineers to agree to the trip. Nick was curious as to how the ship was going to travel so fast. Would it be a wormhole? A teleport? Or something more like a warp drive?

It turned out that a warp drive was the closest version. Petra had tried to explain it to him, something about shrinking the space in front of the ship and stretching it out behind, warping space. He didn't really get it, but it worked, which was the important thing.

Nick hung out on the bridge when they first set out, just because he wanted to. Pilot Yulliksu was flying the ship, and Geh!aoa was the acting Captain. Nick had toyed with asking to be Captain, but it wasn't as if he would be able to do anything useful. Earlier, he'd sat in the chair for a couple of minutes and dreamed about knowing what the hell he was doing and commanding the ship, and that had gotten it out of his system for the moment.

But he made sure he was there to see the stars distort as the faster-than-light engines kicked in.

I have seen some amazing things this year, and this has to be one of the best. There wasn't much to do while the ship was traveling—the shiphandling mostly came in at the start and the end of a voyage. The newness and awe had not worn off by the time they reached a neighboring star system, forty-five minutes later. Hard to believe that we're going to visit a dozen star systems in a single day, but...here we are already.

Nick took up his station one deck down, and poked and prodded the things Petra told him to. They spent fifteen minutes or so in the system, then headed for their next destination. Once things were settled, Nick went back to the bridge to chat with Geh!aoa.

"Hello, Captain." Nick grinned.

"Eh oh, Nik!eh." The fuakala's ears were back, which Nick was pretty sure meant she was happy.

"What did we find in this system?" Nick asked, and Petra translated back and forth as usual.

"Five planets. None of them good to live on. No people. But we have lots more systems to go to. I am glad everything worked. Soon we will see the next one."

* *

The next system had no planets at all, just an asteroid belt. The one after that had a civilization with radio and moon colonies, but not faster-than-light travel. The fuakalas would probably want to check in on that one, as their technology level was similar in addition to them being close neighbors.

The next had one planet with oxygen in its atmosphere, but no radio or other signals. Geh!aoa was eager to explore in more detail, but it would take much longer to approach a planet and do fuller scans than the quick in-and-out stops in their current plan. "We might be able to set up a...place where more fuak!a live." Petra had stumbled over a word.

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"'Colony'," Nick guessed. "But you might get sick there. We will have to check later. First, we are trying to find help."

"I know, I know."

* *

The next three systems had no habitable planets. On the way to the eighth system, Nick had dinner with Doctor Vickall and Geh!kin.

"It would take scores of days to visit every world within 19.2 light years," the Doctor explained. Petra had presumably translated what was a nice round number in her language into Earth units. "There's no simple way to chart a short path to all of them, so we waste time going left and right."

Zig-zagging, Nick thought, but didn't want to get into it right then. It was taking them between 45 and 120 minutes to cross from one star system to the next. "Do we really have no idea what's in those systems without going to look?"

The alien doctor did a half-shrug. "We don't have maps for a lot of these systems. We could head for the closest system that we know is inhabited by a mature race, but it's probably at least a day away from here."

Geh!kin said something that didn't translate, then he sighed and rephrased. "It is strange that all these worlds do not have people. You can get here in days. Why are there no colonies?"

"Many reasons," Dr. Vickall answered. "Star travel is still expensive, so it is usually easier to find what you need in your own system rather than go. Some places have colonies but they are secret, hiding. Some are just bad worlds no one wants. Some places have primitives that someone is protecting. To change a world is very, very expensive and takes many years."

"Change a world?" Geh!kin asked.

"Eh..." The doctor paused. "Change its air. Change its temperature. Like you might do for Ooafa, if your star stabilizes."

"Terraforming," Nick said.

Geh!kin was quiet for a moment. "Your peoples have big...wants. Tries. Sleep and see?"

"Dreams." Nick raised his eyebrows. "Do fuakalas dream?"

"Of course we do." Geh!kin paused. "You...I assume you dream? Hoonanz dream?" Nick nodded. "Do Gol-azkians dream?" Nick could hear Geh!kin's pronunciation even when Petra repeated it more clearly.

"Maybe," the doctor said, looking puzzled, or at least that's what her expression would mean on a human's face. "We have a rest time each day, and our memory of the day connects to others. But it is not a time of...want to try. I ask you tell me more about dreams, please?"

Nick did his best. It seemed that fuakalas dreamed pretty much the same way as humans, but Goldaskians really were different in how their brains worked. After a while, the doctor leaned back. "Nick, if we go to Earth, I want to talk to Earth doctors and share knowledge."

"That would be fantastic! Do you know how to cure cancer?" That was the big example Nick could think of.

"The first and last did not translate, but I am guessing you are happy I might do some kind of fixing of sickness?"

"Yeah, um, when cells get bigger and bigger, I mean more and more, and do not stop when they are supposed to." Petra beeped at him in warning. "When it is good to stop."

"Is that common on Earth?"

"Very."

"I will see what I can do."

The ship's communications system buzzed. "We arrive in 4.5 minutes. All ship handlers report to their stations." It was an expression Nick had taught Petra because they were using it a lot.

They cleared the table quickly. As they headed out, Doctor Vickall asked, "Nick, will you come to Sickbay for more tests when you can?"

"Sure, Doc." She had already had him in several times. They had given her yet more things to think about and check, apparently. For a moment, Nick worried about the doctor creating some kind of super plague designed to kill humans with the knowledge. Then, he set it aside, figuring that that ship had long since sailed. Besides, he was getting to know the doctor's personality a little. She seemed to really enjoy helping and healing. She seemed to respect him, and felt fairly human-like in the way she thought.

At some point, you've got to start trusting people.

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